Old.

In museums you see old stuff. Pretty often. Sometimes you find old stuff other places. Like in the UT library, I've checked out books that were published in the 1800s. But today, I had very old paper in my hands. It was crazy. The original of one is dated 1778. A treaty between the US and France. I don't know if the copy I saw was that old, but it was on yellowed thick paper with an uncut edge. And in the old-style typeface. They used a slightly different alphabet then - I think it was used some for English, too - and the spelling was quite a bit different. Still, I could more or less read it.

The other one was definitely older. The estimated date for when the original was written was 1646. I can't imagine someone just handed me something that old, (and it's sort of hard to believe the paper would still hold together at all) but I also don't know how they would have made a copy like that. It's all written in this slanted, scrawly handwriting, quite different from writing today, with loads of old spellings and letters. I could make out very few words. The French people there could make out barely more. And the paper, a thick, dark yellow-brown, had gotten wet in a few spots and the ink there was illegible.

So where the heck was I? Museums don't let you handle the collections! At the house of the dad of the people I am staying with for the next 5 days. The two older kids went to spend the night at grandpa's, where they also have an uncle who is 8. (I said that wasn't too different from my family - though I don't know how old dad's brother is now since I don't really know anything about him... I guessed like 6, but it was a total guess. But the kids are much younger, and their grandpa looks about 60, so still, it's different.) I said something about studying French, and out come these two very fragile-seeming old documents. Amazing.

The apartment I'm in now is just 5 minutes from the center of Lille, but on a fairly quiet street. It is in an old building and I LOVE the place. The mom called it a small apartment, but I think it's a very nice size. 3 bedroom (though one is fairly small) with a decent kitchen, a living room, and a large office. Really neat floors, everything is clean and well taken-care-of. For an apartment in a city, it has a great view. And the family is very nice. Mom teaches English for French homeschool (they have a really well-structured home school system here, I never knew that!) Dad is a project manager for a company that creates websites. Kids are friendly and fine with new people. Well, the 4 yr old took a couple of hours, but what do you expect from a 4 yr old?

As I sit and type, I can look out the window at the city library. May have to go in tomorrow. When I replace my hat. And buy more minutes for my phone. I sort of want to go shopping, especially for warmer things that I can layer (so that they'll be useful in Austin, too) but I know that Les Soldes begin Jan. 6. Giant sales, somehow determined by the government. Everywhere. Well, everywhere that has stock to get rid of. Must find good balance between warmth for the next 9 days and waiting for better prices. I wonder if bookstores participate in them, too...

K, I just looked it up. Books are not allowed by the government to be sold with a discount greater than 5% except in very specific circumstances. Apparently a somewhat controversial law. And now I understand why nobody has a book cheaper than anybody else. Well then, I may have to lose myself in the bookstore one of these days... before the clothing sales begin...